Inmate Draws More Time in Smuggling Scheme

Amnesty Internation supporters in orange boiler suits hold a night long vigil in a cage outside of the US embassy on January 10, 2008 in London, England. Amnesty International marks the six-year anniversary of the first prisoners being transported to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The human rights organisation installs its 'Guantanamo Cell' built to the exact dimensions of a cell at Guantanamo.

(Getty/Daniel Berehulak)

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) – A federal prison inmate has been ordered to spend an additional two and a half years behind bars for his role in a scheme to smuggle cigarettes into a southern Illinois lockup.

Twenty-seven-year-old Khalat Alama was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis. That’s where he had pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges.

Authorities say Alama was in a federal prison in Greenville when he enlisted former guard Dreaux Perkins to smuggle cigarettes into the prison in exchange for cash.

Perkins also was sentenced earlier this month to 30 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges, as well as to lying to the FBI.

Alama was serving a 15-year federal prison sentence on a methamphetamine conviction.